Chapter 45: Day 40

Everyone, even Fukawa, stood or sat around the massive table. Snacks were placed in the center, half of them already eaten, and a cup of tea, coffee, or water accompanied each person's small plate of food. It was getting late, far past dinnertime, yet everyone was focused in on the conversation at hand.

"So our Ultimate Affluent Progeny, Ultimate Lucky Student, Ultimate Programmer, and Ultimate Detective all decided to explore without the rest of us," Celeste duly noted as she sipped her milk tea. "Quite rude of you all to excuse us from the party, if I do say so myself."

"Their reasoning is justified, however," Taka argued. "I must admit, if I was in their positions, I no doubt would have come to the same conclusion."

"Especially when their only arguments up until recently were dreams, if what they say is true," Ogami stated.

Kirigiri nodded. "That was our primary concern. While we were all experiencing dreams and moments of deja vu, we had no valid proof or evidence of our hypothesis."

"Until Togami was attacked, right?" asked Enoshima as she twirled the end of her pigtail with a finger.

Togami nodded. The four had come clean on everything, including the gas attack Togami suffered. Fukawa was still writhing and pulling at her hair at the mere thought of her 'Master' being harmed, but Togami outright ignored it as he explained, "I managed to find pictures of all of us dressed in the school uniform. We were, in fact, students of this very school at one point. All part of the same class, too."

"So, like, then why don't we remember anything?" Hiro pointed at them all and proclaimed, "My cards haven't mentioned anything about any of this, man! This is crazy!"

"Monokuma later confessed to me that our memories were indeed altered, if not outright wiped out," Togami continued, avoiding Hiro's outburst. "And while I would love nothing more than to write off the bear's statements as falsehoods, that would be to avoid reality."

"But that being said…" Hina sighed and glanced down at her cup of water. "I've had…some dreams, too. About all of us."

"Yeah…same…" Owada trailed off.

"Has anyone not had a dream or feeling of deja vu since waking up?" inquired Naegi. Togami glanced around; everyone's gazes fell to their cups or their food. The silence was deafening.

"What we have put together is this," Kirigiri explained after sipping her own cup of tea. "We all were students here at Hope's Peak Academy for at least one year. That was in 2010. We had normal classes for at least one year. After the one year time period, the Tragedy happened."

"And what is this 'Tragedy' event?" asked Maizono, whose lips were quivering in fear.

"That is what we're looking into now," Togami stated. "It's supposedly a worldwide event of devastation and destruction. Fujisaki found numerous articles detailing riots, death, and chaos in cities all over the globe. But we don't know when it started, what it actually meant, how it impacted us being here, and what is going on now."

Everyone was silent for a full minute. Togami watched as faces became pale, the truth slowly but surely sinking into their brains. "S-So…" Maizono swallowed. "So everyone outside…"

"What year is it?" Ogami suddenly asked.

Togami glanced to Kirigiri, then back to the group. He sighed. "We believe it is now 2012… That we all lost a total of two years' worth of memories."

Gasps erupted around the table. Even Celeste and Ogami, the otherwise stoic ones of the group, shook in their seats. "Two fucking years…?!" Owada shouted. Slamming his fists on the table, he cried out, "There's no damn way! How the fuck did we lose that much time?! And what about my bros outside?!"

"Th-there must be some miscalculation," Taka insisted. "To lose two years is… Well, it's preposterous!"

"But it's the truth," Kirigiri stated harshly. "A truth we on the investigation team are coming to grips with, as well."

"And h-h-how can you p-prove it beyond just some d-dreams w-we're all having?" countered Fukawa.

Togami scowled. "We have found two large pieces of evidence. One is in a classroom we uncovered. There was a schedule posted on the board; the date above was marked for 2012."

"I mean, that could def be a trap," Enoshima remarked.

Togami nodded. "It could, but that's why we searched for more evidence." He glanced down at Naegi, who nodded in understanding.

Naegi turned to look at the group. "Did you all notice the tower of items, what was contained in it?"

"I mean, yeah, it had a ton of stuff," Hina noted.

"So much manga, and so little time!" Yamada excitedly exclaimed.

Naegi nodded. "Right. Well, Togami and I looked through a good chunk of the items. And…and some of them came from 2011. One or two items were published in 2012. But we all received our acceptance letters to Hope's Peak in 2010, right?" Everyone nodded one by one, and looks of horror began to cross their faces. "Exactly," Naegi said. "Clearly time has passed. New things have happened, have come out, have been published. In fact, one movie I recalled seeing before was released in 2011. A full year after our arrival to Hope's Peak. But I recognized the cover and could recall some of the movie details. Nothing was marked from 2013, though. So we have to assume that it's 2012…or things just stopped outside."

"Because we were all meant to have fun and enjoy ourselves, Monokuma no doubt expected us to overlook these minor details," Kirigiri stated. "But it was the proof we needed. Time has passed. Two years' worth. Maybe a little more. But we were all students here at Hope's Peak for over a year, then this Tragedy happened."

"Which is why you hid it from us all," Celeste pointed out. "Because you were waiting to solve the final mystery before informing us of such terrible, horrifying events."

"Precisely. We wanted to wait until we had all the facts before telling you all. Obviously Monokuma had different ideas."

"S-So wait… If two years have passed…" Hina looked up with wide, fearful eyes. "What does that mean for what's outside?"

Naegi sighed heavily and shook his head. "We don't know…"

"You don't know…?!" Maizono's eyes widened, and a look of terror crossed her face. "But…but what of my friends? My family?! My fans?!"

"What about my biker gang?" Owada shouted.

"And my fans worldwide?!" Yamada cried out. "They must be begging for new material by now!"

"This is precisely why we didn't say anything!" Togami exclaimed. "But there's nothing we can change about the facts. And three facts remain: we've been here two years, we cannot say for certain what is happening outside the walls of this school, and we cannot leave this place until Monokuma allows it. To try and leave through the front doors now would invite him to attack us with those gatling guns that have been on standby this entire time. We don't want to antagonize him anymore than we already have."

Silence once again reigned. Togami finished his mug of coffee before standing from his seat and looking around at everyone. "Here is the reality," he stated as he crossed his arms over his chest. "We only know that we're all here at Hope's Peak for reasons that Monokuma changed last-minute. Monokuma himself has shifted from inhibiting the investigation to now outright promoting it. We know we're trapped here. But at the end of the day, we need to escape this hellhole and figure out what's going on. That hasn't changed since Monokuma gave us our first back-up 39 days ago."

"I mean… But what if what's going on outside…" Kuwata's words trailed off, and everyone frowned and looked at one another.

Naegi smiled and leaned forward. "I've thought the same," he admitted. "If things are bad outside… I-I mean, it's not so bad here. We have food, clothes, shelter…" He shook his head and looked up at Togami before returning his gaze to everyone else. "But this isn't life, and whoever messed up our memories isn't doing this for us. I think, if we all work together, we can solve this mystery and get out of here. We can all learn what's going on outside and figure it out. I mean, together, we've gotten this far, haven't we?"

"The guy's got a point," Enoshima mused.

"We can't stay here," Kirigiri stated. "That is not an option. We have to face whatever is happening outside."

"I-I wasn't… I wasn't thinking that…" Kuwata trailed off.

"We also can't break out," Kirigiri continued. "We can't press the guns and the security systems here. Yes, the cameras are still turned off, but we have to play Monokuma's game. And we've been here for this long. We can stay 10 more days. So we fight him tooth and nail. To hide here is to give in to whatever Monokuma wants from us. He wants us to fail this trial."

"No doubt he dropped the news of the investigation in order to slow us down with this final back-up," Togami added. "But we can't lose this."

"I agree," Fujisaki stated, standing tall and proud to the surprise of everyone. With a determined expression, he nodded and said, "I… I've had dreams. Of being told to stay here. I know that, whatever is waiting for us outside, it's going to be bad. Really bad. But we can't stay here, either. I'm with Naegi. We've made it this far; we can definitely stick together and get this done!"

"My my, I did not anticipate Fujisaki having such high Charisma!" Yamada exclaimed. "But I must admit, this is giving me quite the morale boost!"

"So, like, what the fuck are we gonna do?" asked Owada.

"I believe we need to do three things," Kirigiri stated. "One is to focus in the mornings on the back-ups. We have to make sure that gets done at all costs. Second, we need to split up and search for clues about the Tragedy and the former administration in this school."

"Didn't Monokuma say he was going to unlock new places each day?" inquired Ogami.

Kirigiri nodded. "So we search. Then, each night at dinner, we need to reconvene, discuss what we found, and start putting together a proper timeline of events. One in which we all can contribute."

"Sounds like as good a plan as any," Enoshima mumbled.

"I just hope everyone is okay outside…" Hina muttered.

Naegi nodded. "Yeah… We do, too."

"I-I'll do some readings tonight," Hiro said. "See if I can sense anything in the ethereal realm, ya know?"

"Take tonight to collect your thoughts," Kirigiri advised. "We understand… It took us a bit of time to come to terms with what we've uncovered thus far."

"Yes, you don't simply lose two years and shrug it off, even with great effort," Taka lamented. "I mean, my family…my friends…"

Ogami smirked and looked down at Hina. "Yet if we were all friends before, and we're still friends now… That must mean something, right?"

Naegi's smile widened. "Right!"

"I'd advise getting notebooks and writing your thoughts and memories down," Fujisaki noted. "It's something we have been doing, and it's been very helpful."

"You heard the woman!" Taka declared. "Everyone, find a notebook and some writing utensils in the warehouse! We must begin and put all our effort into recovering our memories!"

"You're not going to recover everything," Togami pointed out. "Those moments will come and go, and to try and will them forward will waste time and energy. What we need to do is focus on what Monokuma asked of us: getting that back-up done, and solving the puzzle of Hope's Peak."

"M-M-Master is so p-prepared for this!" Fukawa exclaimed. "H-H-He is s-so wonderful!"

"I guess this is as good a plan as we got," Kuwata mumbled. "But two years… Holy shit, dude."

"Yeah, I don't even wanna think about it," Enoshima stated as she stood from her seat. "I'm headin' back to my room."

"I think that would be wise for most of us," Celeste noted as she finished her cup of tea. "Perhaps tomorrow we can report to the gym with clearer minds. Though is the investigation team going to continue moving behind our backs and doing whatever they wish?"

Fujisaki shook his head. "I'll make sure to make my report each afternoon during dinner, if I find anything online," he stated. "To everyone. That way we're all on the same page."

"And I believe it would be best if we all investigate on our own, but prepare to make reports to everyone," Kirigiri added. "We don't need to move as a group of 15, but we can certainly make daily reports as necessary."

"Sounds good to me," Hina noted. "And on that note, I'm going for a swim. I need to…to get this anxiety outta my system. This is so messed up."

"I'll go with you," Ogami said.

"M-Maybe I'll go, too," Maizono muttered. "I… I don't want to be alone right now."

Hina smiled. "You're more than welcome to join us."

The girls all stood and began exiting the dining hall. Celeste set her cup to the side, stood, and also proceeded to leave. Fujisaki and Yamada started cleaning up the table, while the remaining students wandered out, some alone, others in groups. Kirigiri swiftly walked over to Togami and Naegi, then grabbed onto Fujisaki's sleeve to get her attention. "Before anything more happens, we're going upstairs."

Togami's eyes widened. "To the classroom?" he whispered.

"Yes." She glanced over at Naegi and Fujisaki. "We should show them before the others find it. I'll leave it to them to find it on their own. Let them think that Monokuma opened it up now that this investigation is out in the open. But…"

Togami slowly nodded. "Understood. Then let's get going."

Naegi blinked in confusion. "Is this what you guys found the other day?"

"The really…unpleasant thing?" Fujisaki added.

Kirigiri nodded. "Yes, It's what Togami and I found," she stated as she turned her back to them. "Please prepare yourselves."

Feeling Naegi's fingers interlace with his own, Togami tightened his grip ever so slightly as he followed Kirigiri out. He glanced down to see Naegi looking up with a worried expression, and Togami knew that he couldn't lie to him. "We will escape this place," he whispered as the two began following Kirigiri out of the dining hall. "Just remember that."

"Okay… I will."

"Whatever you see… Remember that we will escape this place."